Under the Magnifying Glass
by Zukra3
Summary: While clearing out his new classroom in his second year of teaching at Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy discovers again the many uses of the Room of Requirment. But now the vast room is empty, except for jars full of buttons, fasinating, magical buttons.


Under the magnifying glass, the snake eyes glittered and shimmered. The lion was next, its mane gently curled. Buttons of every shape and size filled the large glass jugs. There were three jugs in all, and every button imaginable was there.

The man had already picked out a few of his favorites; a panda bear walking, a broom with attached snitch, and a pop-up book button.

Draco Malfoy had rediscovered the Room of Requirement in his second year of teaching at Hogwarts. The Headmaster had expressed a desire to have an alternative history class; specifically focusing on the Dark wars against Voldemort in order to have students understand the great evil and great tragedy in war. Draco had volunteered, having dealt with his pain and conflicts with the war many years ago. It had taken seven years for him to deal with it actually. And then, with nothing else to do, Draco volunteered to teach students about Voldemort.

For two years, Draco had taught in a small room next to the History of Magic classroom. But this year there were so many students signed up for Draco's "History of the Dark Wars" class that the location would have to move.

And moving meant moving to the only open space, under the Astronomy Tower. This meant clearing out the years of junk that teachers needed to store away.

Draco had come across the Room of Requirement by getting hopelessly lost while carrying various paraphernalia found in his new classroom. When the door appeared as it had in his past, Draco jumped, dropping all the books, maps and various boxes he had been struggling to carry.

After cautiously opening the door, Draco was met by a room filled with empty book cases. The only evidence of the deadly fire was the faint scorch marks on the walls.

Taking a deep breath, and shuddering to release it, Draco gathered up the dropped items and started filling the shelves, replacing the things that were lost.

When his arms were empty, Draco turned to leave and collect more junk out of his classroom. That was when he noticed the button jars. The massive jugs filled one long shelf, with a partially filled fourth jar on the shelf below.

Walking over to examine the jugs further, Draco found a magnifying glass, and a "Collectors Guide to Mystical Buttons" sitting on the shelf with the partially filled jar.

Swiftly deciding to abandon the uninteresting job of emptying his classroom, Draco took down the first jug, the magnifying glass and the guide and sat on the floor. After all, buttons are mystical and star charts are boring. Moving the magnifying glass over one button, the snake, made the eyes glitter…

Small sounds broke through Draco's fascination with the 'mystical' buttons. They turned out to be footsteps. Belonging to tiny feet. Those petite feet belonged to a rather ethereal looking witch, wearing a scarf wrapped around her neck. Draco noted that one end of the scarf touched the ground while the other was still attached to knitting needles. Held by some quite beautiful hands.

The Draco's eyes skipped up to the witch's face. There was something quite striking and familiar about the dreamy blue eyes and pale blonde hair. Also, only one person he had ever known was scatterbrained enough to wear a headband with stars attached by springs swaying above their head.

Draco's suspicions were confirmed when the oddly attired witch spoke.

"I collect them, you know. Some buttons were given to me by house elves. I even have one of your buttons Draco."

No doubt about it, this creature was Luna Lovegood.

She spoke again, "You are a professor here? You can hardly be going to school at your age."

Draco immediately felt older than his 27 years.

"You don't look a smidge different though. That's nice, I like recognizing people" Luna was speaking to him, but her eyes were on her buttons. Then she looked at Draco,

"Do you want your button back? I know where it is."

Draco stood up carefully among the buttons he had spread out over the floor.

"You must be the new 'Mystical Creatures and Myths'. Ms. Lovegood, correct?" Draco was stalling, trying to remember when he had worn anything with buttons.

Luna laughed. "No one ever calls me Ms. Lovegood. But you can if you wish, it seems to suit you. But I will call you Draco. Mr. Malfoy is too pretentious and Professor Malfoy is too old to suit you."

She paused there, looking intently at him. "Do you want your button?"

Draco stared. What was so important about the button? "Then I'll just call you Ms. Lovegood… When did I ever wear buttons?"

This last question Draco realized that he didn't mean to speak out loud.

"When you were ten, the day before you got your Hogwarts letter. The button belonged to a long black coat that you decided to turn into robes. Your house elf was quite upset and kept the buttons. He gave one to me when I was fourteen because I had lost a button off of my black coat. It's a very pretty button really. I'm not sure if I can replace it."

Luna lifted the coils of the scarf off her chest so that Draco could see the creamy pearl button on her coat beneath her robes.

Draco decided she could keep the button. Luna obviously liked it, and he certainly didn't need it anymore. Then he remembered why she was at Hogwarts.

"You can keep the button," Draco said, brushing the button issue aside, "You must have my old classroom then, next to the 'History of Magic'?"

Luna shook her head, causing the springy stars on her headband to weave back and forth.

"I'm on the second floor of the Astronomy Tower. The wargle spots in your old classroom distract me too much."

She seemed to be the same Luna, decided Draco. Still concerned about the what-nots and whos-nots of the world. Though maybe there was something in the wargles theory. Draco remembered the shimmering on the walls when students laughed, which wasn't all that often in his class come the think of it.

Draco suddenly remembered all the paraphernalia left in his new classroom.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your collection, but I need to finish clearing out my classroom." He gestured to the things already on the shelves.

"Do you mind if I go through it? You never know what you might find in the things left behind."

Having already known from their school days that M. Luna Lovegood had more then one screw loose, this request didn't disturb Draco in the least. Plus, he could exploit her interest in the odd things to make her help him carry the junk up to the Room of Requirement. And maybe he'd get another look at those buttons.

Gazing about his now empty classroom, Draco sighed in relief. Opening the carpet bag on the fool beside him, Draco glanced inside and began to pull out his desk and wrestle it into place. In his first year of teaching, a student had compared this action to an American movie (a Muggle thing sort of like the moving pictures) called "Mary Poppins". Draco had given the girl (a Ravenclaw) five points for originality and taken five points for talking without permission on irrelevant subjects. The memory of the girl's happy expression slowly dripping off into a scowl still made Draco smile. Being a professor had its definite perks.

Professor Malfoy was looking forward to a new year. New students to go with a new room, and noise to cover the eerie silence that covered the magical school when the students were gone. Also, a new year meant another year of quidditch.

Last year, the captain of the Slytherin team had begged him to coach their new seeker. Draco had enjoyed teaching the quiet boy the finer details of flying. The boy (his name was Paul) was fast becoming Draco's favorite student. This meant that while Professor Malfoy was harder than ever on him, Draco Malfoy was a good friend.

Plus, the amusing presence of Ms. Lovegood was sure to be a source of entertainment. And the buttons, so many buttons to see, and only one school year to do it. Those fascinating buttons… Also, the growth of the scarf was to be a mystery to solve. How long had she been working on that monstrous thing?

New Year, new team, new room, new fascination. So far, all the new things were very pleasant.


End file.
